1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



421 





'r M.I\ 



Even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 

 wings.— Matt. 23 : 37. 



Our Lord and Savior, in that wonderful 

 verse, a part only of which I have quoted, 

 recognized the intense and unselfish devotion 

 of the mother hen for her chickens. Just 

 now it is not my purpose to discuss the great 

 moral truth in that verse, but only to con- 

 sider the illustration; and it is not so much 

 the mother hen I wish to talk about as it is 

 the chickens— the "motherless" chickens, 

 in fact, that come from an incubator. 



My first hatch, as I have told you, was 

 given a hen to "brood," and I am glad to 

 tell you she did her part so well that not one 

 of the thirty was lost. They are now wean- 

 ed and feathered out, and only yesterday I 

 was wondering what great birds they were 

 that were clear up in tne tops of the palmet- 

 to and live-oak trees. Sure enough, they 

 were my thirty "Floi'ida flying-machines. ' 

 They had climbed into the trees, and, for 

 sheer pastime, were seeing who could fly 

 the furthest, and they went sailing away off 

 across the lot. Well, there was no sitting 

 hen for the next lot, so I put them in the 

 brooder under the incubator, and they got 

 killed from the oil by rubbing against the 

 lamp to keep warm, as 1 have told you. I 

 succeeded in saving two only, and these 

 came so near death I had given up all hope. 

 The skin came off in great patches, taking 

 the feathei"s too; but when 1 saw nature was 

 fast making new skin, and feathers too, I 

 took hope, and now they too are pretty fair 

 flying-machines, even if they are a sorry pair 

 to look at. I washed them with Castile soap 

 and water, put on cuticura, and now they 

 flop their new pearly-white wings and give 

 me thanks every time I come in sight. 



ARE BROODERS NEEDED HERE IN THIS FLOR- 

 IDA CLIMATE? 



I have not yet fully settled the question, 

 but I feel sure a very cheap form of brooder 

 will do nicely. After the coal-oil mishap I 

 put my chicks, as they came from the incu- 

 bator, in a light thin pine box, lined inside 

 with burlap, and set it on top of the incuba- 

 tor. The top of my incubator, being metal, 

 is always quite warm, and the chicks in my 

 box kept over night nicely. In the morning, 

 box and all was placed out in the sunshine. 

 We always have sunshine here. As the 

 strongest chicks were soon out by daylight, 

 some of the weaker ones needed a little 

 warmth before the sun got well up. I fixed 

 this nicely with a hot flat-iron placed bottom 

 up under the pine box. By the time the 

 iron was cool the sun was up and no more 

 heat was needed. I used the flat-iron only 



three or four cool mornings during the first 

 week.* Some of you may say this is more 

 trouble than to have a regular brooder. 

 Well, I proposed to try one of the best up- 

 to-date incubators and brooders; but after I 

 had deposited the cash for incubator l)y /W.s'i 

 express (and brooder by freight) the first 

 communication I could possibly get from 

 them was a printed jwstal card, 10 days la- 

 ter, saying my order was "entered," etc. 1 

 then countermanded the whole order, and 

 that is why I am not only keeping poultry 

 absolutely without hovises or "coops," but 

 1 am raising beautiful strong chickens with- 

 out a brooder. One important result is, I 

 have yet to see a glimpse of any sort of poul- 

 try vermin on the island. My five pullets 

 laid regularly four eggs one day and five the 

 next, until one began sitting, and now we 

 get three eggs one day and four the next, 

 and this has been going on for over thirty 

 days. I use a bone-mill to give them animal 

 food, and the sea-kale that grows abundant- 

 ly along the beach gives them a great plenty 

 of vegetable food that they are very fond of. 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT " BABY CHICK.S." 



Through Vjad management and a cheap in- 

 cubator (probably mostly the former) my 

 chicks did not get out of the shell very well. 

 1 would not at present advise putting eggs 

 in the incubator everyday and having "new 

 chicks" everyday. It is true, in my "na- 

 ture studies" it gave me some lessons I 

 might not have gotten otherwise, and it may 

 do all right "just for the fun of the thing." 



When the eggs did not hatch on time I 

 noticed one writer said it helped them along 

 to dip the eggs in water at 105 degrees. Well, 

 I presume I got a little nervous, and failed 

 to notice an egg I was dipping was chipped. 

 As the warm water rushed into the opening 

 you ought to have heard the baby chick pro- 

 test. Oh how I do wish I could put the pret- 

 ty little talk in print, used by baby chicks! 

 I have known for yeai's that the mother hen 

 has quite a vocabulary that the chicks recog- 

 nize and understand ; but that the little 

 chick has a whole lot of pretty little speeches 

 that the mother understands perfectly is one 

 of my recent "wonderful discoveries." To- 

 gether with this talk is a physical and in- 

 tellectual growth that is positively amazing. 

 These chicks in my pine box had no mother 

 to love (and to love them) except me, and 

 straightway it seemed as if they lavished 

 and jjoured out all that little love and long- 

 ing on my poor self. Their toes got cold, 

 and they called "Chirp, chirp, chirp." I 

 warmed them, and they expressed their 

 thanks with that pretty little "Chec, chee, 

 chee." Instinctively they wanted to follow 

 somebody to exercise their little feet and 



* The burlap was put around the inside of the box 

 double, folded overhead double with the loose end so 

 it could be folded back to leave an opening on the top 

 for air larger or smaller according to the weather. 

 You can tell by their actions when they have about 

 the right amount of air. When rainy, box, chicks, 

 and all were carried inside. The chicks got out and 

 in over the top where we ventilate. I feel sure it is 

 best to get along here with as little artificial heat as 

 possible. 



